'Team America: World Police' is exactly the kind of movie America needs in an election year. It allows levelheaded liberals and conservatives to come together and agree on just how incredibly ridiculous American politics have become. You won’t walk out feeling the victim of propaganda from either side, as the only real point of the movie is that the correct response to madness is laughter. Trey Parker and Matt Stone have created a pitch-perfect satire taking on ignorant ethnocentricity, Hollywood liberalism, and reckless jingoism, and they do it all with a cast full of marionettes and a storyline that ruthlessly mocks big budget action films. I haven’t laughed as hard and as often in a movie theater since, well, Parker and Stone’s 'South Park' movie.

“Team America” opens with a puppet dangling in front of a hand drawn background of Paris, and though we know from the trailers this is not how the entire movie will look, there is a small moment when the audience thinks, “this cannot possibly work – I am about to watch 90 minutes of puppets, what have I done?” Then it happens. The camera pulls back to reveal the lush and incredibly detailed Paris set, and we quickly realize we are witnessing groundbreaking work from incredibly talented artists. The sets – which include locations like Egypt, Times Square, Mount Rushmore, and the palace of Kim Jong Il – are astonishingly detailed and authentic. The shot of Times Square comes early in the film, and there was a moment when I thought I was looking at the real thing.

The storyline is purposely ridiculous and pokes fun at Bruckheimer-esque action conventions. Team America is an elite group of counter terrorism hotshots who blow up everything in site to stop terrorists from using WMD. The group is lead by chain-smoking Spottswoode, who commands the team from a lair inside Mt. Rushmore. Spottswoode attempts to recruit Gary Johnston, an actor he hopes will be able to infiltrate terrorist cells and help Team America rid the world of WMD. The team chemistry is a spot on parody of typical action movie nonsense with the all-American and even-tempered Joe leading, the hotheaded blowhard Chris giving new-comer Gary a hard time because “something in his past” has caused him to be prejudiced against actors, and the development of a love triangle between Gary, the sexy Lisa, and the tomboyish Sarah.

Meanwhile, Kim Jong Il is plotting to distract the world by signing a peace treaty with the Film Actors Guild (FAG), which is made up of well-known liberals including Alec Baldwin, Tim Robbins, and Matt Damon. With puppets bearing their likenesses having significant roles in the movie, it will be interesting to see how the real life actors take the joke. Sean Penn, also singled out in the film, has already lashed out at Parker and Stone, but I have a feeling most of the other actors (including Michael Moore, who is also lampooned) will be good natured enough take the hit. It is one thing to get criticized with dull ignorance by someone like Bill O’Rielly, it is quite another to be the victim of sharp, well-timed satire. As actors, many who have done satire themselves, they should, at the very least, be able to admire the skillful execution.

The movie gets a lot of laughs simply by making the puppets do a lot of things you would never expect to see a puppet do - smoke, drink, puke, swear, and have the kind of sex that would make Ron Jeremy blush. But the difference between the people who will like this movie and the people who will love it is how much they appreciate the way it mocks big, dumb actions films. While the sneak preview audience I saw it with last Saturday night was rolling in the isles, I have a feeling some audiences less familiar with the genre’s conventions may be left scratching their head at some of the film’s humor.

As they did with the “South Park” movie, Parker and Stone also dabble in the musical form, with the most memorable numbers being Kim Jong Il singing a melancholy song called “I’m so Ronery ” as he paces the empty halls of his evil headquarters, and the hilarious break-up tune “I Miss You Almost as Much as ‘Pearl Harbor’ Sucked.” Also worth mentioning is the “Montage” number, a song so well written fans will undoubtedly forgive that it is being recycled from an old “South Park” episode.

Like many “South Park” episodes, “Team America” ends with Parker and Stone making a very straightforward, very direct statement about what they think. I don’t know anyone else who can consistently get away with that as well as they do. Perhaps it is because their final conclusions are so even-tempered and well argued that both liberals and conservatives are so evenly drawn to their work. The final moments of the film provide us with Gary giving an outrageously vulgar foreign policy speech about ten million times more sensible, realistic, and productive than anything you’re likely to hear coming out of Bush or Kerry’s mouth over the next few weeks. It alone is worth the price of admission. This is a terrifically funny, surprisingly thought provoking movie, and one of the very best you’ll see all year.